West Side Nut Club Fall Festival to Feature New Thrill Ride This Year

The 102nd West Side Nut Club Fall Festival is set for October 2nd through 7th, and in addition to all the great local food booths and live entertainment, this year's carnival midway will feature a ride never before seen on Franklin Street.

When I was a kid going to the festival, I didn't care about all the food booths. My goal was to ride as many rides and play as many games as I could in the midway (a.k.a. the lawn of the West Branch Library). My favorites were the Gravitron (I think it's called Spaceship 3000 or something now) and the Scrambler. While those rides are still part of the midway, along with the Zipper and other classics like the Ring of Fire, North American Midway Entertainment, the company that provides the rides for the festival each year, will be bringing a new ride this year that puts a new "twist" on an old favorite.

West Side Nut Club Reveals New Ride Coming to 2023 Fall Festival

One of the more popular rides over the past several years has been the Freak Out. That ride features 12 seats, separated into four groups of three, suspended from a large beam. With all the riders facing each other, the seats rotate while the beam swings back and forth until it's parallel to the ground.

Now, imagine that same ride but instead of the beam reaching its apex parallel to the ground, it swings a full 360 degrees leaving the riders upside down for a few seconds before swinging back around. Meet the Supernova.

As you can see from the video, the ride can carry 12 riders at a time. However, instead of four sets of three seats each, there are three sets of four seats with riders sitting back-to-back.

More Fall Festival Ride News

In addition to the Supernova, this year's festival will also feature a ride called Downdraft, which according to a post on the West Side Nut Club's Facebook page, is "a variation of the Hurricane ride that has appeared at the festival for many years." The "variation" is where the riders sit. The Hurricane featured an enclosed cockpit for riders whereas the Downdraft will feature a seat allowing the rider's feet to hang down.

Finally, the Club announced another popular ride will return to this year's event. Vertigo is a classic swing ride that takes 24 riders at a time 100 feet in the air and spins them around on mounted swings.

The Club also released the full ride list showing the height requirement and number of ride tickets it will cost to ride each one.

Tickets are $1.50 each or a sheet of 20 for $25. All-you-can-ride wristbands are also available at the discounted price of $25 each until October 1st and can be purchased online through the West Side Nut Club website. The price jumps to $30 once the festival gets underway.

[Source: West Side Nut Club on Facebook]